More than the required amount of letters

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

Do grad schools look down on this? I'm a philosophy major and I want to apply to grad schools in linguistics, and I can get at least 4 letters from linguistics professors so far. MIT for example requires 3.

[fuzzylogician]

I submitted four letters everywhere (in linguistics, including to MIT). It wasn't a problem, and in fact my letters were mentioned in interviews and open house events as a strength of my application. 

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

Thanks! Fortunately, 3 out of 4 professors who I want to write letters for me are affiliated with MIT in some way (one of them is Angelika Kratzer). I hope I have a good chance.

[fuzzylogician]

A good letter from Angelika will go a long way. Good luck. 

[victorydance]

The general rule is don't submit more unless all of them are very strong. No point in submitting an average LOR if you don't need to.

[Taeyers]

I requested 4 because one of my letter writers is notorious for submitting them very late and often being very hard to get ahold of, so I wanted to make sure at least 3 were in on time. I took 2 classes from this professor and went above and beyond as her TA for multiple semesters, but she's a bit of an airhead and procrastinator who just doesn't respond to reminders that she needs to get something done. Turns out she submitted her recommendation on time, and it was my PI who was weeks late (in spite of being on the admissions committee   )

 

Anyway, at the end of the day I had 4 letters submitted, but I suppose I will never know how many of them were read. I suspect they were all quite strong, but I probably wouldn't have asked for all 4 without the timing concern. No one ever remarked on it. 

Edited August 16, 2014 by Taeyers

[Dedi]

I now have the same question. The program I want to apply to requires two letters. I had my two letters in place (they say they will be strong) and then the POI I've been working for this summer offered to write me a strong letter. I don't want to exclude anyone because I think they all will have an important role...

[avflinsch]

My situation is probably so far outside the norm with regards to asking for letters of recommendation, but I figured that I would throw my two cents in anyway.

 

1 – I applied to a grad program in my final year as an undergrad (not all that unusual)

 

2 – I was 52 when I finally finished my undergrad (odd, but not completely unheard of)

 

3 – I am a full time employee of the school where I finished my undergrad, and applied to a grad program (free tuition, plus I was on campus anyway, which is why I went back to school)

 

4 – I waived my rights to see any letter of recommendation.

 

The program I applied to only allowed for 3 letters, but I ended up with 6 -

 

Letter #1 – This one came from an adjunct faculty member in the undergrad program, I had taken a single class with him. He is also a fulltime employee of the school and I also have a professional relationship with him (same department, but different group). He sent me a copy of the letter, when it was submitted.

 

Letter #2 – This came from the advisor of my undergrad capstone project. He was also a fulltime employee & part time faculty. We had no professional relationship, but we did share many outside interests. He also sent me a copy of the letter after submission.

 

Letter #3 – This one came from a fulltime faculty member, who offered to write a letter for me, after taking her class a year earlier. She did not send a copy of the letter.

 

There were also 3 unsolicited letters that came in after I filed my application.

 

One was from a faculty member from the department of my minor which was totally unrelated to my major or the program I was applying to. He was also the only professor that I had for more than one class in the 7 years it took to finish my BA. I had run into him on campus one day, and we talked for a bit and I mentioned that I was applying to a grad program.  A few weeks later, he told me he sent a letter, but did not send a copy.

 

The second came from a professor who was currently teaching an online course that I was taking. He was on the review committee, was impressed with my work in class, and inserted a letter into my application, without my knowledge. I did not actually meet him until after I was accepted into the program. He gave me a copy of the letter when I finally met him in person.

 

The third was already in my departmental student file, and came from the former department chair. I had taken a course with him early on when I went back to school, and spoke to him often before he retired. He had asked me several times if I was planning on applying to the grad program, and apparently wrote letters for several students in advance.

 

FWIW I think the unsolicited letters probably had a more positive impact on my application than the ones that I had requested.